I have Kaiser and pay $860 per mo. for me and my husband, health only, no dental or vision. From what I hear, there are supposed to be some less expensive choices for people starting in October. I don't know any details, but we plan to change to another company if possible, before they jack up the price on us anymore. Our rate was $734 not too long ago, and I was very aggravated when it increased so much.

I lost mine almost 2 years ago when my dept got slashed to p/t positions, just under what's considered f/t so we lost benefits.Lost 2 weeks vacation, sick days, bonus days, medical & life insurance. If I have to visit the doctor, it's what... $100? Haven't had to go yet.. knock on wood... And the dentist for cleanings 2x a year runs $240. Med ins would cost close to $700 a month, which I don't have.

I used to stress over it bigtime. Why, ya know? If something catastrophic happens I'll have to swallow my pride & apply for charity care.

From what I hear, more employers are going to PT so they don't have to offer benefits. It will be up to us to fend for ourselves. Info out there is saying a lot of insurance companies are will not participate in the exchanges, just too restrictive and costly for them; so our alternatives will be few. This will force us into a one payer system and we all know where that will take us.

I tend to see a higher percentage of people using medical tourism, so long as it will be allowed. A few our our friends have decided on a second home in Central America gaining expat benefits.

I've already told my story here a few times. My insurance is going up 16% this month and went up 20% last year. This is what we get when we let corporations, such as insurance and pharmaceuticals, write our laws and run our government. So, which party is in the pockets of the corporations? Both of them. This is why congress has single digit ratings. You can try to blame it on a president, but congress makes the law. The president can chose to try to veto it or not execute it all at once.

It was supposed to happen that I could find insurance in another State that would be competitive. I would have chosen Romneycare. But that was disallowed by the House. Now, I only have a few choices. What happened to laws of monopoly?

I have said that consumers can speak with their purses, but that doesn't work anymore. Not with monopolies and corporations earning huge profits by getting non-American labor, which has no health care, no social security, no unemployment insurance, etc. Don't believe me? Just look at a chart of the major stock indexes. All time highs. Now look at the job market. Minimal improvement. Even though the public is not able to spend as much as before (pad the pockets of corporate America), the corporations are still gaining. Then there is the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. I just returned from Paris where there was indications of that problem centuries ago which caused a revolution where the rich literally lost their heads.

I'm just sayin'

__________________
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- Jim

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart." — Helen Keller

Company paid health insurance was non-existent until gov wage mandates were made during WWII to help grease the skids of the imperial war machine. The law of economics is like the law of gravity; it cannot be repealed by governments or or other groups of 'feel gooders'. Companies offered 'free' healthcare to woo away workers from other firms.

I don't care what you call it, ObamaCare, RomnenyCare, HillaryCare, McCainCare, any gov run medical care will be a failure to the end consumer. Sounds kind of hollow to rally against corprotism, while running back to it.

Until we get rid of the notion that stealing from any group of people and giving it to another group is somehow noble, we will continue to elect thieving representatives and the cycle will continue.

From Forbes
OK I get it we are only supposed to listen to what or government officials tell us and not look at the actual data they present.

Quote:

Avik Roy, Contributor Angela Braly, then-CEO of WellPoint, testified before Congress about allegations that its California unit, Anthem Blue Cross, was raising premiums on some customers by more than 30 percent. Last week, California announced that the Affordable Care Act would increase non-group insurance premiums by as much as 146 percent. (Image courtesy U.S. House of Representatives)

Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. “These rates are way below the worst-case gloom-and-doom scenarios we have heard,” boasted Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange. But the data that Lee released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent.
One of the most serious flaws with Obamacare is that its blizzard of regulations and mandates drives up the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own.
This problem will be especially acute when the law’s main provisions kick in on January 1, 2014, leading many to worry about health insurance “rate shock.”

And then there is this doctor he just might the beginning of a new trend.

Quote:

Local doctor's solution to healthcare crisis SOUTH PORTLAND (WGME) -- One of the big hot button issues across the nation is the state of health care and its affordability.

Dr. Michael Ciampi, a family practitioner in South Portland, believes he has found the answer to our healthcare crisis.

Ciampi has chosen to stop accepting health insurance at his practice.

“Instead of working for the government or working for insurance companies, we’re gonna work for the patient,” says Ciampi, who has been working at his Lincoln Street practice for 10 years.

“The amount of regulations that are coming out, pages and pages of regulations are coming out pages and pages every week are coming out, and we wouldn’t be able to hire enough people in order to comply with all of them,” says Ciampi.

At his practice, patients are paying out of pocket for services, all of which are listed on his website.

“Normally under the old system we would have to charge 150 dollars for a visit, under this system we've cut that in half, we're literally changing 75 dollars for a visit ,” says Ciampi.

With this system, it brings with it lower overhead costs. Dr. Ciampi says he’s passing his savings to his patients.

Mike Leary has been a patient of his for ten years. “I get such great healthcare here, like second to none,” says Leary.

The change is helping hundreds of people like Leary, who has a high deductible. It also helps those who are self-employed or don’t have insurance.

“You know I’m a working class guy I don’t earn a huge amount of money and I don’t feel any reservation paying his prices at all,” says Leary.

Dr. Ciampi says he is spending more time with his patients and less in front of a computer.

“You see all your patients? If someone comes in for a visit, they’re stuck with me. We don’t have a nurse practitioner we don’t have a PA. I can write my own rules to some extent,” says Ciampi.

The Maine Board of Medicine says right now there is no law that requires a private practice to accept health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. And that it is something that is happening nationwide.